Reprinted from the Rescue Reporter, newsletter of NorCal Collie Rescue, Summer 2008:
http://www.calcollierescue.org/newsletter.htm



This issue of the NCR newsletter contains a piece by Mary Callaham on rehabbing one our NCR rescue collies, Dasher.  Mary tells about how she used modern, dog-friendly methods to decrease Dasher's resource guarding and other undesirable behaviors.  Her story seemed like a good opportunity for me to explain the current methods of treating shyness and aggression in fearful dogs.

How can there be anything in common with shyness and aggression?  Don't they seem like diametrical opposites?  Perhaps you have heard of the expression "Fight or Flight." This saying summarizes most animals' reaction to frightening stimuli.  Both shyness and some types of so-called "aggression" are flip sides of one emotion:  fear.  Usually an animal's first reaction to fear is "flight" but if corned, the animal will resort to "fight."  In reality, whether a dog chooses fight or flight depends in part on that animal's personality and natural tendencies.

In rescue, we get many undersocialized dogs that are afraid of a lot of things.  Some of this fear makes the dog an undesirable pet, so we in rescue work hard to rehabilitate so that they can be adopted and their adopters will have much less work to do.  However, even normal dogs can have strong emotional reactions to things in their environment, and their humans need to understand how best to deal with emotion-based behaviors in dogs.

When your dog growls at something, maybe at you, perhaps you have been taught to correct your dog for that growling, scolding the dog "that's just not acceptable!" (as if your dog speaks English!).  Or, perhaps your dog is terribly afraid of something, and a friend warns you not to reassure your dog because you will "reinforce" the fear.  Neither of these responses will help reduce the undesired behavior in your dog.  If anything these responses can make the dog feel even more fearful and unable to express its feelings freely.

In the first example, the mistake is to think that reducing the dog's expression of its emotions, usually fear or other discomfort, will reduce the emotion itself.  When dogs are corrected for excessive barking, growling or air-snapping (clacking their teeth for show and no intention whatsoever of biting), then the dog will learn not to display its emotions and appear to learn not to behave "aggressively."  In reality, the dog may feel even more fearful or uncomfortable but cannot communicate that emotion anymore.  In such cases, a dog may later escalate and attack you or another dog "without warning" and "out of the blue."  The growling itself is a good thing.  You want to know what your dog is feeling. What you want to change instead is your dog's perceived need for growling.

To do that, behaviorists often use a program of "desensitization and counter conditioning" or DS-CC.  Without going into great detail, the idea is that you pair a good thing with whatever the dog is afraid of. I can't go into all of the protocols here, so like with Mary and Dasher and their sessions with Barbara DeGroodt, I recommend strongly that you consult a local, dog-friendly behaviorist who uses positive reinforcement and DS-CC (not Cesar Millan or his disciples, who use outdated and misguided approaches such as corrections and "flooding"). 

Some well-meaning people who see an owner giving a growling dog food or reassuring a terrified dog will tell you that you are "reinforcing" the fear or the aggression. This remark arises from a deep misunderstanding of respondent versus operant behaviors.  Respondent behavior includes the emotions, such as fear and fear-based aggression.  Operant behaviors are learned behaviors that the dog can control or change with experience.  Changing behaviors of the two different types requires two different approaches and sets of methods.

One of our rescue collies, Lucy, absolutely hated having her toenails clipped. In fact, she would become not simply frightened but terrified if anyone touched her feet.  Yet, her toenails were uncomfortably long. How to desensitize her to nail trimming and counter-condition her to love it?

I got out a clicker and touched one of her feet lightly.  As soon as I touched her foot, I clicked and gave her a treat.  The very first time I touched her foot, Lucy gave me a hard stare and a loud snarl, and made a move toward me like she was going to bite me.  What did I do?  I stuck to my plan:  I clicked and then in the midst of her snarl, I popped a piece of steak into her mouth.  Anyone watching me would think that I just reinforced the snarling and the snapping.  If anything, I reinforced her not moving and not biting me when I touched her foot.  In a way I used the clicker a little non-conventionally.  I used it to mark something I did, and not really an action that she did--I clicked her for not reacting more than she did.

Proof that I did not reinforce her growling and snapping came rapidly.  "Reinforce" in behavioral terms means that a behavior increases in frequency.   The second time I touched her foot, clicked, and treated, she gave a half-hearted growl and did not snap or feign a movement toward me.  The third time I touched her foot, actually now I picked it up by one toe, and then clicked and treated, she was silent.  Instead, she had become very interested in how the foot touching predicted a piece of steak.  By the fourth and fifth times--now I was grabbing her foot and holding on tight--she simply waited eagerly for her steak.  I next placed the toenail dremel against her toe while I held her foot, clicked and treated a couple more times and quit for the day.

In the next session, the following week, we started where we left off.  In about 6 more clicks I was dremeling her toenails.  Eventually, when Lucy saw me get out the dremel, she would push herself in front of me and present me with her foot, holding it in the air, to insist that I trim her toenails first, before the other dogs.

I don't have room to describe the many more examples of NCR rescue dogs that we have rehabbed successfully using these desensitization and counter-conditioning methods.  Please consider using a dog-friendly approach to solving dog behavioral problems of all kinds. While you can read many good books to learn these methods yourself, I urge you to find a professional to help you with any behavior in which your dog growls at you or threatens to bite you.  These behaviors can be successfully addressed with well-informed positive methods, but consulting with a behaviorist ensures that you will succeed without anyone getting hurt. I would be happy to recommend a positive-reinforcement trainer near you.  To learn more about positive reinforcement training, visit http://www.r-plusdogtraining.info.